Thursday, July 15, 2010

2Wheels4Girls Update: Kidnapped Somewhere in Northern China

"Lieutenant" (her Soma Saga) has been her "only friend"in the past two months. Photo taken somewhere around HaiLa'erEleanor Moseman has faced almost everything a solo journey by bicycle can throw at a person.The standards like fatigue, loneliness, sleeping every night in strange places, sun/windburn, and of course getting caught going pottie along the road. Then there are the worrisome and annoying things like your fingers going numb by holding onto handlebars so many weeks in a row and "bugs, bugs, bugs".

But while the road and nature can take a toll, the most dangerous element, unfortunately, can be the people you meet on the journey. Meeting new people is supposed to be one of the delights of such adventures. And while that has been true for the most part in her first 5500 km, that little nightmare of a possibility that you don't want to think about happened to Eleanor a little over a week ago. A man offered to treat our wary traveller to dinner and find her a place to sleep for the night. And then things went wrong. You can read the rest on her July 8th blog post.

Armed with just her Soma Saga, a tent and a camera, American Eleanor Moseman is on a solo cycling odyssey from Shanghai to the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and back again. 2wheels4girls project, 17,000 mile bike ride across China in 9 months, is intended to inspire girls to fulfill their real potential and raise money for organizations promoting education for the disadvantaged.